White House chat group’s full ‘attack plans’ revealed
A journalist accidentally added to a group chat of Trump advisers has revealed the full “attack plans” for strikes in Yemen that he was inadvertently given access to.
An article published in The Atlantic on Thursday (AEDT) was headed: “Here Are the attack plans that Trump’s advisers shared on Signal”, and exposed the entire text thread.
Editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who had previously shared only select texts, released everything in response to the Trump administration’s insistence that the information shared in the White House chat group was not classified.
The White House lashed out and labelled Goldberg an “anti-Trump hater” who was a registered Democrat voter. It accused him of manufacturing stories and “pushing hoaxes” throughout his career.
The latest messages reveal a blow-by-blow account of live US operations in Yemen, as discussed in the White House chat group of top military and intelligence chiefs.
“As we wrote on Monday, much of the conversation in the ‘Houthi PC small group’ concerned the timing and rationale of attacks on the Houthis, and contained remarks by Trump-administration officials about the alleged shortcomings of America’s European allies,” wrote The Atlantic.
“But on the day of the attack – Saturday, March 15 – the discussion veered toward the operational.”
“If this information – particularly the exact times American aircraft were taking off for Yemen – had fallen into the wrong hands in that crucial two-hour period, American pilots and other American personnel could have been exposed to even greater danger than they ordinarily would face.”
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The chat group included accounts appearing to represent Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, CIA director John Ratcliffe, national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and senior National Security Council officials.
In a previously unpublished message thread, Hegseth updated the group on details of the American attacks:
The Trump administration has sought to contain the fallout, while Democrats called on top officials to resign over the security incident.
Goldberg was mistakenly added to the Signal group discussion by Trump’s National Security adviser Michael Waltz.
Waltz earlier told Fox News, “I take full responsibility” for the breach. He had created the Signal group, but maintained that no classified information had been shared.
Waltz said the situation was “embarrassing” and the administration would “get to the bottom” of what went wrong.
He said Goldberg’s number was not saved in his phone and he did not know how the journalist was mistakenly added to the group.
Sensitive information is not supposed to be shared on commercial mobile phone apps.
Additionally, Signal’s ability to erase conversations would violate US laws governing the retention of government records.
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On Thursday, the Trump administration continued to insist that “no war plans were discussed” and no classified material was shared in the text group.
Gabbard and Ratcliffe — both of whom were in the chat — testified with the same defiant message on Wednesday (AEDT) before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
But Democratic senators were sceptical, given the discussion on operational details about pending strikes against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, “including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing”.
Committee members said they planned — and Gabbard and Ratcliffe agreed to — an audit of the exchange.
The Senate’s Republican majority leader, John Thune, said he expected the Senate Armed Services Committee to look into officials’ use of Signal.
“It’s hard for me to believe that targets and timing and weapons would not have been classified,” Senator Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said at the contentious hearing, which featured several sharp exchanges.
Gabbard repeatedly referred questions about the exchange to Hegseth and the Department of Defence.
She and Ratcliffe will face more lawmakers on Thursday (AEDT) when the House of Representatives holds its annual Worldwide Threats hearing. Democrats said they planned to discuss the Signal chat.
Tuesday’s revelation drew outrage and disbelief from national security experts and prompted Democrats — and some of President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans — to call for an investigation of what they called a major security breach.
“I am of the view that there ought to be resignations, starting with the national security adviser and the secretary of defence,” Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon said at the hearing.
But Trump has backed his national security team. He said the administration would look into the use of Signal but he did not think Waltz should apologise.
Gabbard acknowledged she had been abroad during the chat, although she declined to say whether she was using a private phone.
The White House has sought to play down the incident. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Goldberg of sensationalising the story in a post on X.
